Rogue Warriors fined $420,000 by LPL due to match fixing scandal
League of Legends Pro League (LPL) team Rogue Warriors have been fined 3 million RMB, equivalent to over US $423,000 due to the match-fixing scandal involving their former jungler Wang “WeiYan” Xiang.
Last week, shock news emerged from the Chinese League of Legends scene, when another esports match-fixing scandal has been unveiled to the public, this time involving Rogue Warriors and their former jungler WeiYan, who has been found violating the team's and league's rules by making arrangements with other teams in a bid to manipulate match outcomes through prohibited approaches.
Along with the report of the incident, Rogue Warriors also released a statement, announcing they will no longer be working with WeiYan, due to their zero-tolerance policy for corruption. Besides that, however, not a lot of details were available, as Rogue Warriors decided to hand the investigation over to LPL.
The league officials confirmed the alleged match-fixing and decided to hand WeiYan and Rogue Warriors severe punishment, which includes a long suspension from LoL competitive scene, as well as a monetary fine for the two parties.
For participating in illegally incentivized activities, related to LoL, which violated article 11.2.17 of the LPL 2020 Official Rules, and due to his intention to disrupt the fairness of the league, violating article 11.3 of LPL 2020 Official Rules, WeiYan has received a 24-month global suspension from professional League of Legends scene as well as streaming the game. The league (LPL) will work with various live streaming platforms to ensure that WeiYan does not participate in any LoL-related live streams during his suspension period.
Due to their indirect involvement in the scandal, Rogue Warriors have been fined 3 million Chinese Yuan, which is approximately equivalent to US $423,000, as well as received a severe warning. It remains to be seen how the warning will affect the operations at Rogue Warriors, however, it's safe to assume the Chinese esports organisation can't afford another slip-up, seeing how WeiYan-scandal was their second match-fixing incident in less than a year.
LPL Discipline Committee are continuing to investigate and examine this incident and will announce any further discoveries.
Since the rumours of the match-fixing scandal surfaced, Rogue Warriors have removed WeiYan from the team and replaced him with their substitute Chen "Haro" Wen-Lin, who has now taken over as the main jungler of this team.
Rogue Warriors are currently ranked 14th in the league with a 3-6 record to their name. Their next fixture of the 2020 LPL Spring Splitz is slated to be played on Thursday, April 2, against Bilibili Gaming, where claiming a W will be of the essence for a team that has not only lost their starting jungler and received a massive fine but are also slowly drifting away from the top half of the league standings.
Rogue Warriors last appeared in LPL playoffs in 2018, when they finished fourth and later claimed silver at Regional Finals, thus missed out on making it to the World Championship.
Rogue Warriors LoL team:
Kim "Crazy" Jae-hee
Bae "Holder" Jae-cheol
Chen "Haro" Wen-Lin
Lee "Ruby" Sol-min
Wang "Wuming" Xin
Mei "ZWuJi" Hong-Hui
Le "Ley" Yi
